Three new schools opening in August to replace Lake Middle School already have drawn twice as many sixth-graders than currently attend the northwest Denver school.

“To have already doubled the number of sixth-graders with six months to go before the start of school demonstrates the high parent demand for the changes we are making,” DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg said.

The district last fall recommended the turnaround strategy. It was narrowly approved by the school board in November on a 4-3 vote after weeks of discord.

The plan replaces Lake’s principal and phases out an International Baccalaureate program that the district and state say wasn’t working.

Two charter schools run by the West Denver Preparatory Charter School program will open in August within Lake’s enrollment boundary. One will be in the old Emerson Street alternative school, and the other will be co-located in Lake’s building.

A new IB program will develop in Lake’s facility, beginning with a sixth-grade class and adding one grade each year.

So far, 119 sixth-graders have signed up for the new IB program, 85 coming from inside the Lake enrollment boundary. A total of 261 sixth- graders have enrolled in the two West Denver Prep charters, 107 coming from inside the Lake boundary.

The combined enrollment is already double the number of current Lake sixth-graders.

“It did work, and it’s because of the active grassroots campaigning by the IB group and West Denver Prep,” said Andrea Merida, a school board member who voted against the plan. “The district can’t take credit for it. The Lake IB community made lemonade out of lemons and took matters into their own hands, reached out to the families on their own.”

Parents also complained that adding middle schools in the neighborhood around Skinner Middle School would hurt that program’s future.

DPS enrollment projections for Skinner show it will have about two dozen fewer sixth-graders next year. But the district added $200,000 to Skinner’s budget and is recommending that the school receive a $100,000 School Improvement Grant.

Jeremy P. Meyer was a reporter and editorial writer with The Denver Post until 2016. He worked at a variety of weeklies in Washington state before going to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin as sports writer and then copy editor. He moved to the Yakima Herald-Republic as a feature writer, then to The Gazette in Colorado Springs as news reporter before landing at The Post. He covered Aurora, the environment, K-12 education, Denver city hall and eventually moved to the editorial page as a writer and columnist.